On April 10, A man threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s mansion, CEO of OpenAI. In his pocket he carried an anti-AI manifesto and the names of other tech leaders. Meanwhile, in China, humanoid robots danced with children and received applause from the public at the Spring Festival Gala.
Public opinion of AI. When we talk about the AI race between the US and China we usually focus on technology; who has the best modelsthe goings-on with the chips…There is another angle from which to look at this competition, and that is public opinion: how citizens are valuing these innovations. And in this, China is winning.
Pessimism vs optimism. In a complete Stanford University report published by Rest of Worlda section is dedicated to public opinion on AI and the data are very different between both countries. To the question “Products and services that use AI excite me,” only 38% of Americans answered yes, while in China they got 84% positive responses. It is not a small difference, we are talking about China getting the highest score and the United States is almost at the bottom of the list
Other countries also showing enthusiasm towards AI are Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, all in Asia. In the case of Spain, with 45% we are a little below the global sentiment, which is 53% globally.
Trust in regulators. It was another of the points of the report and here the United States received the worst score. Only 31% of respondents trust that the US government regulates AI correctly. Not surprising, since the Trump administration’s strategy to win the AI race It is precisely deregulated. The survey does not collect this data about China, but it does indicate that other Asian countries such as Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have high trust in their regulators.
Rejection of AI is growing. The Molotov cocktail thrown at Sam Altman’s house is not the only violent act sparked by growing anti-AI sentiment. A few days earlier, an Indianapolis councilman who voted in favor of building a data center woke up in the middle of the night to hearing gunshots. Thirteen shots were found at his door and a message that said “no data centers.” We have also talked about cases of attacks on robotaxis in San Franciscowith passengers inside.
The consequences. The study links optimism and confidence with faster adoption of AI. In the United States the adoption rate is 28% while in Singapore it reaches 61%, more than double, and it also has the highest number of AI researchers per capita. Meanwhile, the migration of talent to the United States has plummeted since 2017 and it is at a minimum. Furthermore, opposition to the construction of data centers, motivated by pollution and energy consumption that they produce, is delaying many projects.
Image | Xataka
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